After the welcome dinner, the next morning we began our orientation. The leader of the dig, Teodora, and the Balkan Heritage Field School leader, Nayden, both gave us presentations of the past excavations on this site and the role of the Balkan Heritage Field school in the excavations, as well as telling us about some other sites in the Balkans and the history of our own site, Apollonia Pontica. Apparently there were excavations begun in the early 20th century. Then, a military school was built on the site, partially destroying the Byzantine church found. In the early 2000s, the country wanted to sell the land to someone who would make a private casino and hotel, but the law is that the sites must first be excavated. Teodora and a small group of excavators dug in the area, finding the remains of the church and also the remains of an older civilizations. Those finds stopped the development, and Teodora and her team continued to dig for a few years, until the money they had been given by the government ran out. For a year or two, she and her diggers were supported entirely by contributions from the sale of archaeology museum tickets. Then, in about 2015, she joined up with the BHFS. It’s a lot slower going than a regular dig because the only do the excavations with students, and only during the summer, but it allows her to continue preserving this site that is so important to her, and it allows students to learn the basics of archaeology.
After we were done with our morning orientation, I headed out into the city to eat lunch and explore. The city is a very odd hodgepodge. Ancient ruins are interspersed with fancy but inexpensive restaurants, beaches and beach bars, and literal carnival games. Still, despite the dissonance, it is an absolutely beautiful city, with orange-tiled roofs, all the amenities one could need, and the ocean on three sides. I walked through the streets of the new town, passing carts selling crepes, stores with rose products, and bathing suit emporiums. I walked down to the end of the first beach, turning around and retracing my steps when I was done. I got a crepe and then made my way into the old town, where more of the ruins were. I walked along the second beach, then walked along the old city’s fortifications, passing restaurants with beautiful views and descending down to lookouts that gave me a view of the entire new town. On the way back, I walked through the streets of the old town, admiring the style of the buildings, with rock construction on the first level and over-jutting wood construction on the upper level.
I made my way back to the guest house and cooled down after the long walk. I relaxed and finished the audiobook I’d been listening to. Then, it was time for our tour of the city. Teodora took us on a tour of the old town, pointing out essentials like the atms, pharmacies, 24 hour stores, and good restaurants. She also showed us previous excavations she had worked on within the town. She apparently has 9 months out of the year for the last 12 years here and knows all the locals. It was really awesome seeing all these archaeological sites and hearing personal stories from someone who had been down there, digging it all up.
We ran into another group of girls from our program as they were heading to dinner, and they let us tag along. We ate at their favorite resturant, Del Muro, and had a delicious italian-style dinner before heading to the bar at which the supervisors and students are all regulars. I stayed at the bar for a short time, expanding my knowledge of cocktails by trying a Mai Thai for the first time. Then I headed back to my room and FaceTimed Becca for the first time since I got here, which was wonderful. After about an hour, I hung up and went to bed.
I woke up the next day, the first actual day I got to dig. I had breakfast with the other students, walked to St. Kirik Island, the site of the old military school. I was geeking out as I took in the pits. Because, like, obviously. I had one other student give me a brief tour before Nayden gave all the new students (2 of us newbies and 2 who had been working on conservation before and now were continuing on with the dig), a tour of the entirety of the spaces we would be using. Then we were handed off to Teodora, who explained more specifics about working on the site. Finally, we were introduced to Nadiya, the supervisor of the pits we would be working in.
One of the other new girls and I were paired together, and we used a pickax to uproot the dirt before combing through it, looking for pottery, bones, and other special finds. The site is a rich site, and we found fragments of pottery and animal bones, while some of the more well-worked on sites discovered more substantial bones and continued working on cleaning out the walls and graves they’ve been working on for two weeks.
After the dig was over, about half the students chose to stay behind, where Nadiya and Nayden, both excellent swimmers (one lifeguard certified and one a scuba dive archaeologist), led us to a place where the students had jumped off rocks the previous week. Although I did not jump off of the higher rocks, I did jump in and tread the water in the Black Sea for a while. Afterwards, I grabbed lunch and walked back to the house with two other students. I had a well-needed shower and got to relax for a while before my first lecture.
My first lecture was a more in-depth look at the history of the island, given by one of the archaeologists who previously worked on the site who is a professor in Sofia. We learned about some of the previous finds on the island, with more specifics about the items and the time period from which they came.
After the lecture, my roommate and I walked around the Old Town and had dinner on the water again. It was absolutely stunning being able to see the colors on the water change as the night came on.
I woke up early the next day, ready to dig again. After a quick breakfast, I walked to the site. My roommate and I got to do more digging today, starting in on the first layer of soil rather than mainly clearing an area. We again found some cool fragments and bones, including some animal jaw bones. We were slower than everyone else and we didn’t really know what we were doing, but it didn’t matter all that much. We were digging and finding things. And we were having a great time.
I started back to my apartment when it was all over, wandering through Old Town and buying a few souvenirs along the way. I had a little time to relax before my lectures, as lectures 2 and 3 were combined into one. The first lecture was more about Greek colonization of the Black Sea area (the Pontic) and the second was more about the ancient town of Apollonia Pontica (Apollonia on the Pontic).
We have two more lectures left. Then, next week, we start on the workshops of cleaning and drawing pottery. Having seen all the finds, I am super excited to do the cleaning!
I’ve been super busy and my wifi is awful (it took me three days to get this page to cooperate) so look for another post Friday or Saturday at the earliest!
WANDERING 